


White Houses

by crystalesbian



Category: Scream (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - No Murders, F/F, Friends to Lovers, Mutual Pining, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-19
Updated: 2017-06-25
Packaged: 2018-10-08 01:32:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10374834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crystalesbian/pseuds/crystalesbian
Summary: “There is a sense of triumph attached to finally being able to get out of my dad’s house.” Audrey cracks a small smile. “Even if we are only an hour from home and will probably be living off of microwaved cup noodles for the next four months.”--A university AU in which Emma and Audrey pine over each other, everyone practically lives at Brooke's apartment instead of their own dorms, and no one gets murdered by anyone.





	1. August - Freshman Year

**Author's Note:**

> I'm so excited to finally be able to publish this! I've been planning this story for a while and I'm glad that it gets to be one of the few fics that gets to see the light of day instead of just remaining a jumble of half-formed ideas and abandoned drafts rotting away in my google drive. 
> 
> A little information about this fic: I plan for it to cover four years of university with each chapter representing a month out of a year. I haven't tagged any ships other than Emma/Audrey yet for the sake of not spoiling anything, but there are going to be others. I'll tag ships and characters as they get introduced so as not to spam the tags and avoid spoilers.
> 
> Thank you to everyone who's expressed their enthusiasm about this fic to me and motivated me to actually get writing! And very special thanks to my beta readers [Amanda](http://archiveofourown.org/users/acityofsleeplesspeople/pseuds/acityofsleeplesspeople) and [Bri](http://archiveofourown.org/users/explosionshark/pseuds/explosionshark)!

All the boxes have been unpacked, all the shelves nailed to the wall with old high school books and framed pictures sitting atop them, and Maggie has hugged them both goodbye and shut the door behind her.

Emma flops down on her newly-made twin bed. “Well,” she says, “we made it. We’re officially adults now.”

Audrey scoffs, copying Emma and flopping down on her own bed. “Yup. We’re really living the dream.”

Emma rolls her eyes. As if she can’t see right through Audrey. As if they hadn’t been talking about sharing a college dorm room since before they were even in high school. “Oh, don’t act all sarcastic and disaffected!” She laughs, picking up a pillow and chucking it across the room at Audrey. “I know you’re excited!”

“There is a sense of triumph attached to finally being able to get out of my dad’s house.” Audrey cracks a small smile. “Even if we are only an hour from home and will probably be living off of microwaved cup noodles for the next four months.”

“Oh please, you are using every ounce of willpower not to jump for joy right now. Miss ‘Too Cool To Show Emotions.’”

Emma stares Audrey down intensely, and Audrey eventually, finally, rolls her eyes and bursts into exuberated laughter, her whole face breaking into a full-blown grin. “It is pretty fucking awesome.”

Emma jumps up into a sitting position on her bed. “I knew it! Now give me my pillow back.”

—

Their first week, Emma drags Audrey along to a mixer. Actually, that isn’t quite right. The mixer was Audrey’s idea in the first place, but the way she’s groaning and rolling her eyes and brooding in the corner, it definitely doesn’t feel that way to Emma. Audrey only manages to have a maximum of ten minutes of anything resembling a good time until drunken frat boys start hitting on them— okay, hitting on  _ Emma _ — and Audrey spends at least a half an hour in guard dog mode before declaring herself to be “over it” and resigning herself to doing shots in the backyard with a guy from her film class.

Emma’s waiting in line for the bathroom when a gorgeous blonde girl walks up to her and throws her arms around her, almost making her spill her drink. “Oh my god, how are you? I’ve been looking for you everywhere!” The girl exclaims, then leans over and whispers in her ear, “Please just play along, this guy won’t leave me alone.”

Luckily, Emma aced her high school improv class. “Oh my god! Hey, it’s been forever!” She grins at the girl like she’s Audrey, like she’s known her forever, like they used to share sleeping bags as kids.

The girl turns to the guy behind her, who’s staring at her expectantly. “Do you mind? My friend and I have a lot a catching up to do. I’m sure you understand, right Jake?” She doesn’t give him a chance to answer before turning back and tugging Emma down the hallway and into the kitchen. She breathes a sigh of relief when the door swings shut behind her. “Sorry about that. I recognized you from English and I needed an escape. You’re Emma, right?”

Emma’s a little taken aback that a girl this pretty knows her name, and even more so that Emma can’t seem to recall hers. “Yeah. Um, don’t worry about it.” She racks her brain for the girl’s name. She  _ does _ recognize her from class, so she has to have heard someone call her by something, but she’s embarrassed to ask the girl outright.

“We went to high school together,” she says, and it takes a moment for Emma to realize that the girl isn’t talking about  _ them _ them, but rather her and the guy from before. “He’s always had this super obvious crush on me. It’s sweet, but obnoxious. I’m not about to spend my night dodging a guy from the part of my life I’d rather forget.”

Emma smiles, looking down into her drink, stirring it with her straw. She can’t imagine this girl having a difficult time in high school, but it’s not like she can’t relate. “Yeah. I know what you mean.” 

“I’m Brooke. If you didn’t know.”

Emma lets out the smallest sigh of relief.  _ Brooke _ . That was it. “Yeah, Brooke. I know.”

Brooke turns around and starts going through the fridge. “What are you drinking? I’ll refill you.”

“Diet Coke,” Emma answers. “I’m DD.”

“Probably for the best.” Brooke shuts the refrigerator door, making a face. “All they have in here is nasty beer anyway. That’s why I bring my own.” She pulls a tiny flask out of her purse and takes a swig. “Still not enough to save this shitty party though.”

Emma laughs. She and Brooke stay in the kitchen for a while talking until Audrey comes looking for her.

“Hey, Emma, I’ve been looking for you.”

“I’ve just been here with Brooke. Brooke, this is Audrey. Audrey, Brooke.”

“Hi. Look, we should go soon. Noah’s completely trashed.”

“Who?”

“Noah. I told him we’d give him a ride.” Audrey rolls her eyes. “Jesus, Emma, we went to high school with him!”

“Oh. Okay, we can go.” Emma turns to Brooke. “Hey, do you need a ride home?”

“Yeah, that’d be great. My roommate dropped me off, so I guess my only other option would be to catch a ride with Jake.” Brooke rolls her eyes.

“Well, can you get a ride with him, then?” Audrey asks.

“Audrey, we have room in the car.”

“Fine. It’s whatever.” Audrey concedes.

Audrey and Noah sit in the back while Brooke rides shotgun, giving Emma directions. She lives in a complex just a few blocks off campus, and her place is a little white townhouse in a row of a bunch of other little white townhouses. It’s pretty. By no means extravagant, but definitely nicer than anything Emma could afford.

“Thanks again for saving my ass,” Brooke says as she gets out of the car. “I’ll text you tomorrow!” Emma watches as Brooke goes up her front steps, and waits until Brooke is safe inside before driving away.

Emma drops Noah off next, and then she and Audrey head back to their dorm room.

“So,” Audrey says when they get back to their room, “It’s cool that you’re like… making friends.”

Oh god. Emma knows what this is. This is the Nina Patterson-type jealousy thing. Emma really doesn’t want to go through this with her again, not after high school. “Yeah, I guess. I just met Brooke though.”

“Yeah. You guys seemed to really hit it off.”

“She’s nice,” Emma says in Brooke’s defense. She starts changing out of her party clothes and into pajamas. Audrey turns away. “Hey,” Emma says, “You know you’re my best friend, right? You’re always gonna be.”

Audrey turns back to face Emma. There’s the faintest trace of surprise on her face, like she doesn’t know where this is coming from. “Yeah,” she says, “I know.”


	2. September - Freshman Year

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Audrey has to admit, it’s getting harder to dislike Brooke. Emma seems to _really_ like her, which is intimidating as hell and not something she has an easy time dealing with. But Brooke’s not a horrible person to be around, and she doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you again to my fantastic betas, [Amanda](http://archiveofourown.org/users/acityofsleeplesspeople/pseuds/acityofsleeplesspeople) and [Briana](http://archiveofourown.org/users/explosionshark/pseuds/explosionshark). Go show them some love.

Emma has been spending a lot of time with Brooke. So Audrey, by extension, has also been spending a fair amount of time with Brooke.

She has to admit, it’s getting harder to dislike Brooke. Emma seems to _really_ like her, which is intimidating as hell and not something she has an easy time dealing with. But Brooke’s not a horrible person to be around, and she doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.

Audrey’s never really had an easy time sharing Emma. It’s part of what made their friendship so strained in high school. Emma had her group of her friends, and Audrey had Emma. And then later on, Noah. But there was never any overlap between Emma’s cool, popular friends and Audrey. Audrey either got Emma to herself, or she didn’t get her at all.

So yeah. Getting used to having Brooke around is. Weird. And difficult. But it could be manageable.

“We should all do something tonight,” Brooke says one day while they’re having lunch together on the quad. “Like all of us, together. Drinks or a movie night or something. We could do it at my place. Riley can invite some friends too.”

“I can’t tonight,” Emma says. “My boyfriend’s coming into town.”

Right. Audrey had almost managed to forget about that. Will Belmont, her favorite person in the world, was visiting today after a blissful few months without Audrey having to see or hear about him. Awesome.

“Ooh, fun.” Brooke smirks. “What about you, Audrey? Noah?”

“I have a humanities test to study for,” Audrey says. Which is true. She does have a test tomorrow. But she also isn’t thrilled about spending the night at Brooke’s without Emma while knowing Emma is off with her fucking gem of a greasy boyfriend.

“If no one else is going, maybe we should just do another night,” Noah says.

“Okay.” Brooke shrugs. Then looks at Emma with a coy grin. “Have fun tonight, Emma.”

—

Audrey wakes up with her head in her humanities textbook to the sound of Emma’s voice just outside the door, loud and furious and _hurt_. It only takes Audrey a few seconds to orient herself and rush to fling the door to their room open. Emma and Will are standing in the hallway, and Emma’s face is red and her expression is one Audrey’s only seen a few rare times before.

“Babe, c’mon, just try to understand—”

Will moves forward with a comforting gesture, and Emma backs into the room defensively. “Do _not_ touch me.” Audrey backs up to let Emma by, and Emma slams the door with Hulk-like force. Audrey stands in shock for a moment, fully ready to run after Will Belmont and kick his ass before asking questions, until Emma settles down on her bed and crumbles, hot tears streaming down her face.

Fuck. Not only did the douchebag make Emma cry, but now Audrey can’t chase after him, due to the fact that Emma is crying. “Hey, hey,” Audrey sits next to Emma on the bed, putting a protective arm around her. “What happened? What did he do? Because I won’t hesitate to chop his nuts off, just say the word.”

Emma laughs, but it’s bitter. “Nina Patterson happened. Although Will wasn’t exactly an innocent bystander,” she all but spits out. Which is good, because it means she’s more angry than she is sad, and Audrey can work with angry. Audrey knows angry. Hell, Audrey kind of _likes_ angry on Emma, considering how little she gets to see it. What Audrey can’t handle is Emma heartbroken.

“That bitch.” Audrey starts rubbing tiny circles on Emma’s back, something her mom used to do when Audrey was upset when she was little. “Did they…?”

“You know,” Emma starts, “it would’ve been one thing if he cheated on me after school started. Even if we’re barely an hour away from each other and haven’t even been apart a month. But this has apparently been going on and off for _two years_ . Over half the time we’ve been together. He’s such a stupid fucking— _ugh!_ ”

“Let me guess— he expected you to forgive him, said it’d never happen again, begged you to take him back?”

“Oh, it’s so much worse than that.” Emma breaks free of Audrey’s hold on her to turn and face her. “I didn’t even get the chance to dump him. _He_ broke up with _me_.”

“Oh, Em…”

“Nina wants to make their relationship _Facebook official_.”

Audrey makes a retching sound and sees the corner of Emma’s mouth quirk upward. She wants to keep that ever-so-slight display of amusement going. “...Hey, remember when I decked her in the face sophomore year?”

That finally gets a real, genuine laugh out of Emma. “Oh my god, I was so mad at you!”

“Yeah, you didn’t talk to me for two months.”

“You broke her nose!”

Audrey rolls her eyes. “She was so over dramatic about that. Like, either don’t go around being a bitch to everyone, or get a harder face. Survival 101.”

“I don’t even remember what she said to you. I’m sure she definitely deserved it though.”

“Yeah, probably,” Audrey laughs. She _does_ remember what Nina Patterson said to her, in excruciating detail. There’s no point in dredging it up again, though. She gets up from the bed. “You wanna go on one of our drives?”

“Right now? Don’t you have a test to study for?”

“I’ve been cramming all night,” Audrey lies. “I need to get out. C’mon, I’ll buy the food.”

Emma hesitates for a split second, then nods. “Okay. Anything but Taco Bell. I’ve already eaten there twice this week.”

“Deal. Just give me a second, I have to take care of something.”

Emma gives her that disapproving, ever-so- _Emma_ look. “Audrey, please don’t go after Will. I don’t want you getting hurt because of me.”

Audrey counters with a look that she hopes comes off as convincingly offended. “Ye of little faith! I’m just going to clean out my car. And also, _I_ wouldn’t be the one getting hurt, I want to make that clear.”

Emma apparently isn’t convinced. “I don’t need you to fight my battles for me.”

Audrey puts a hand over her heart. “I swear on my camera I will not touch him. Is that good enough for you, or do you want to ride in the front seat with all the fast food wrappers I’ve acquired over the last two weeks?”

Emma rolls her eyes, but she’s smiling. “Go clean out your car.”

“Thank you.”

Audrey comes back ten minutes later to get Emma. Emma rides shotgun in Audrey’s car and gets to pick the music, as per their usual rules, but it doesn’t make a difference; as always, she blares the Blink 182 Greatest Hits CD Audrey got when they were eleven, and that has been in Audrey’s car since she started driving. Audrey hasn’t driven around town enough to know where they’re going, but it doesn’t really matter; it never does. They eventually pass a Zaxby’s and go through the drive-thru. Audrey orders a salad and Emma gets a basket of crinkle fries and agrees to pick the chicken out of Audrey’s salad. They park across the street with their food, roll down the windows, and belt out all the words to “The Rock Show.”

When they’re finished with their food, they drive around for about another hour and a half. The CD has already looped twice by the time they get back. Audrey pulls into the parking lot and has already unbuckled and has her hand on the door when Emma notices.

“What’s Will’s car still doing here?” Emma asks, squinting across the lot.

Crap. They almost made it. “Um. Well, he _might’ve_ had some trouble getting it out of here.”

Emma turns to her. “Audrey, what did you do?”

“I said I wouldn’t touch him, and I didn’t!”

“Audrey...”

“But I never said anything about his tires, so…”

“ _Audrey!_ ”

“Only three of them! The guy’s capable of calling an Uber! Besides, I googled it and it’s technically not a felony in Louisiana unless the damage is over $750, and _believe me_ , there’s no way—”

She’s cut off by Emma giving her a crushing hug around her waist. “You’re _so_ stupid.”

Audrey has never felt so proud of an act of vandalism in her life. “Yeah. I know.”

—

As soon as Brooke hears about what happened, she all but demands they have a girls’ night to take Emma's mind off of it. Emma sort of suspects that it’s Brooke’s excuse to have a party under the guise of being a supportive friend, and insists they keep it low-key. Brooke just scoffs. “Do you really think I want a bunch of sweaty drunk strangers at my house? Trust me, it’ll be small.”

She shows up at Brooke’s place Friday night with Audrey and Noah (who, for whatever reason, they’re bringing along to girls’ night). Brooke’s roommate Riley greets them at the door, and Noah rubs the back of his neck and trips over his words when he says, “Um, hey, yeah, uh, Brooke invited us?”

“Are you sure? Because you don’t sound sure,” Riley says.

“Um, I—”

“I’m kidding. Come in.” She steps aside and the three of them walk in. Brooke’s on the couch in the living room with the guy from the party at the beginning of the year, whose arm is around her shoulder, and there’s a girl with braids who Emma recognizes from her Psych class sitting on the floor with her legs crossed. Emma’s theory about Brooke wanting to throw a party is starting to lose its weight considering how few people are actually here.

“Jake, get out of here, it’s girls’ night.” Brooke lightly shoves the guy off her.

“Aw, come on, he gets to stay!” Jake whines, gesturing at Noah.

“ _What_ ever. My house, my rules. Get out.”

She walks Jake out the door and comes back. “Sorry about that. Anyway, Emma, Audrey, Noah, this is my roommate Riley, and her friend Zoe. Zoe, Riley, this is Audrey, Emma, and Noah. Everyone all introduced?” She doesn’t wait for an answer. “Perfect! I’ve got drinks. Let’s watch a movie.”

It’s becoming more clear to Emma what Brooke’s motives are. She’s trying to establish them all as a _group_.

Which is weird to Emma, to be perfectly honest. She’s never really been part of a group of friends with Audrey before. They pretty much only had each other up until high school, and then Emma found her own group, which Audrey was very notably not a part of. Even just hanging out with Audrey around Brooke and Noah was weird enough to her. Hell, up until a few weeks ago, Emma had only known Noah as that kid Audrey hung out with when she wasn’t around. She can’t remember if she had ever even spoken to him in high school.

So yeah. This whole thing feels very foreign to Emma. But she’s not exactly opposed to the idea of having more than one friend at a time.

“Hello, earth to Emma!” Brooke calls from the floor in front of the TV. “You wanna help pick the movie or are you gonna let Audrey and Noah make us watch Saw?”

—

They’ve been drinking and talking over the first two _High School Musical_ movies— Audrey and Noah were outvoted— for the past three and a half hours, and they’re all at least tipsy, some of them more. Brooke’s been drinking more than all of them— she brought out a bottle of tequila halfway through the first movie after Audrey demanded something stronger than the fruity shit they’d been drinking— but is still not even close to the most drunk. Turns out she has a lot of alcohol tolerance in that tiny body of hers. Audrey’s actually really impressed. She might be even moving past tolerating Brooke into really liking her.

Emma’s leaning against Audrey’s shoulder and absentmindedly spinning her empty Smirnoff bottle on the floor while Brooke takes suggestions for their next course of action, since the third HSM movie isn’t on Netflix.

Riley’s watching Emma in a way that Audrey’s starting to find weird until Riley says, “Hey! Let’s play spin the bottle.”

Emma perks up and Audrey cocks an eyebrow. “Spin the bottle? Really? Are we still in high school?”

“Middle school is more like it,” Brooke says, amused. “I haven’t played spin the bottle since eighth grade.”

“Do people actually play spin the bottle?” Noah asks. “Because I have never, in my eighteen years of life, actually witnessed it happening outside of movies.”

“Yeah, well you’re a loser,” Audrey says, mainly because she’s drunk and has even less of a filter than she normally does. Zoe laughs, and Noah turns red.

Riley’s starting to look discouraged. “Come on!” She puts a hand on Noah’s shoulder and leans against him like someone who clearly knows what she’s doing, tipsiness aside. “It’ll be fun! Besides, you can’t go through your life never having played a single game of spin the bottle. It’s the American pastime,” she says, very seriously.

Noah turns even redder. “I— I mean, I never said I didn’t want to play!” He says, looking around the room. “But, won’t it be kind of unfair with the uneven ratio of guys to girls?”

Brooke smirks. “Oh, don’t tell me _you’re_ complaining. However it works out, you’re guaranteed to get to kiss a pretty girl. Besides, Audrey’s gay.”

Audrey looks up sharply. Sure Brooke isn’t wrong, but she’s also pretty sure she’s never disclosed that information to her, and it’s weird to hear it like that in front of a bunch of people. “That…” she’s at a loss for words for a few seconds, “...that does _not_ mean I’m entertaining this.”

“I’m bi,” Zoe offers up, probably to diffuse the awkwardness that seems to have filled the air.

“So we’re playing?” Riley asks, clasping her hands together.

Emma nudges Audrey with her shoulder, and looks up at her with those fucking doe-eyes of hers. “Audrey, c’mon. It’ll be fun.”

God, she hates that that’s all it fucking takes.

“Fine. Let’s do it.”

Riley squeals, and the six of them arrange themselves in a circle on the floor.

“It’s only fair that Riley goes first,” Brooke says, picking up an empty bottle and placing it in Riley’s hand like it's some sort of sacred artifact. “Do the honors?”

Riley spins the bottle, and either her aim or Noah’s luck must be incredible, because when it finally stops it’s pointing directly at him, no question about it. There’s some stuttering on his part before Riley kisses him, and it only lasts a few seconds, but Noah’s beet red by the end of it, shifting uncomfortably.

“Okay, should we go clockwise?” Riley asks, and hands the bottle to Brooke.

Audrey’s already lost interest in this game, and is picking at her nail beds when she hears a “Woo!” and Brooke saying, “Alright, Jensen, let’s do this.”

Audrey looks up and the bottle is pointing at her, and Brooke has an evil gleam in her eye. She crawls across the circle until she’s right on top of Audrey, straddling her lap. Brooke gets up on her knees so that she’s taller than Audrey, and takes her face in her hand, tilting Audrey’s chin up to look at her. She tilts her head to the side, prolonging the moment until her lips meet Audrey’s.

Brooke starts slow, working her lips over Audrey’s until Audrey’s own lips part, and then Brooke’s tongue is in her mouth. She gasps softly, moving one hand to the small of Brooke’s back, and the other to the back of her neck. Brooke is sucking on Audrey’s bottom lip and her hands are in Audrey’s hair. Audrey lets out an involuntary moan and Brooke pulls away all too soon, leaving Audrey with her mouth hanging open, lipstick smeared across her mouth.

It’s at that point that Audrey remembers they have an audience. Emma’s mouth is hanging wide open, and Noah is tugging his shirt down over his jeans. Zoe looks something between shocked, impressed, and overjoyed, and Riley’s just looking at them with wide eyes. Worst of all, Brooke is grinning entirely too smugly, and Audrey suddenly feels the same way she felt right before she hit Nina Patterson in tenth grade.

“Um— I— I need to um, go,” Noah says, getting up and running towards the bathroom.

“Yeah, you know what?” Audrey practically spits out. “I should go too. I’m gonna get some air.” She gets up too quickly, knocking over Emma’s drink by her foot and not bothering to help clean it up.

“Audrey!” Emma calls after her, clearly more concerned with her than the drink, but Brooke puts a hand on her shoulder, stopping her from running after Audrey as she goes out the back, slamming the door as hard as she can without breaking the glass.

Maybe it's the copious amounts of tequila, but Audrey feels like she might throw up. She should’ve known this would happen. She should’ve known that despite all her charm and seemingly sweet gestures, Brooke was no different than Nina Patterson, standing over her sneering, “ _You might as well give it up, because Emma’s not like that. And honestly, this whole following-her-around-like-a-lovesick-puppy thing is so pathetic it’s not even fun to watch anymore_.”

God, she’s so fucking humiliated.

The door opens and Audrey doesn’t even have to look up to know it’s Emma coming to check on her. “I’m fine,” she says.

“Are you sure?” asks the last voice Audrey wants to hear right now. “Because you really didn’t seem fine.”

Audrey whirls around to face Brooke. “What the fuck do you want?”

“You seemed upset. Am I that bad of a kisser?” It’s an attempt at a joke. Audrey’s really trying hard not to punch her. She’s already refrained from punching Will this week, and it would be a shame to let all that progress go to waste.

“Look, I get it, okay? It’s fun to humiliate the gay girl. It’s not like I’m new to this.”

Brooke has the audacity to look insulted. “That’s what you thought that was? What, you seriously thought I invited you over just so I could pull some weird high school level Carrie-esque prank?”

“Well then why the hell did you invite me?”

“Um, because you’re my friend and Emma’s friend and I wanted to have you guys over? I didn’t have some twisted ulterior motive.”

“We aren’t friends,” Audrey grumbles, although now she’s starting to feel embarrassed for an entirely different reason. Okay, so maybe it wouldn’t completely make sense if this was Brooke’s plan all along. Riley _was_ the one to suggest spin the bottle in the first place and Brooke would’ve had to have near-psychic abilities to know the bottle was going to land on her. “You looked pretty fucking pleased with yourself after kissing me, though.”

Brooke snorts. “Um, yeah, obviously. Why is it so hard to believe I wanted to kiss you for my own reasons? I mean, c’mon, you’re cute, and you’re funny, and you’re crazy smart in a way I don’t even totally get. I thought it’d be fun to kiss you. And it was.” Brooke sighs, “And okay, maybe I like to screw with people a little bit. I mean, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy watching you squirm. But Jesus, I mean, I wasn’t trying to like, make you the laughingstock of the town or whatever you seem to think I was doing. I’m sorry I embarrassed you so much. For real.”

Audrey looks at Brooke, and finally tries to speak without the same hostility in her voice. “You seriously just wanted to kiss me? Nothing else?”

“Yeah,” Brooke says, “that’s literally all it was. C’mon, you have to have a little faith in people.”

Audrey scrunches up her face. “Ew. Tell me you didn’t just quote a Woody Allen movie at me.”

“If I did, it was completely unintentional and I’m sorry.”

Audrey laughs. Then, after a moment, she says, “God, can I tell you something really stupid?”

“Go ahead.”

“I think that was kind of… technically my first kiss.”

Brooke looks surprised. “Seriously?”

“Yeah, seriously. I mean, I was pretty much the only gay girl in my high school. I haven’t had any experience kissing anyone outside of practice kisses with Emma when we were like thirteen, and I’m not sure if those count.”

“You like her, right?” Brooke says.

“Oh, _god_ , is it still that obvious?”

“ _Yes_ ,” Brooke says way too quickly. “Well, at least to me. I’m pretty observant, though.”

“Right, sure,” Audrey laughs. “God, you’d think I would’ve gotten better at hiding it over the years.”

“If it makes you feel any better, I’m pretty sure she doesn’t notice. She actually seems pretty fucking oblivious. You could probably tell her straight up and it would still take a few days for her to realize it.”

Audrey laughs again. “Yeah, sounds about right.”

“And also— just so you know, that was my first time kissing a girl, too.”

“Well, you were pretty damn good at it. I couldn’t tell.”

Brooke shrugs. “It’s not too different from kissing boys, minus the stubble and gagging on the smell of Axe body spray.” She grins. “And we _are_ friends, by the way.”

“What?”

“Earlier, you said we weren’t friends. I’m just letting you know that I respectfully disagree.” She turns to the door. “Now, are we gonna go back inside and finish the game, or what?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please yell at me about emrey and the angel that is Brooke Maddox on my [tumblr](http://emreys.tumblr.com/)!


	3. October - Freshman Year

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Halloween is in less than three weeks, and Riley and I are hosting a party at our place!”  
> “I thought you didn’t like Halloween,” Noah says.  
> “I like booze and dressing cute and watching boys drool over me.” Brooke rolls her eyes. “And I’d rather do it on my own terms than at some skeezy frat party."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you as always to my lovely betas [Amanda](http://archiveofourown.org/users/acityofsleeplesspeople/pseuds/acityofsleeplesspeople) and [Briana](http://archiveofourown.org/users/explosionshark/pseuds/explosionshark)!

Halloween has been always been Audrey’s favorite holiday since they were little kids, so Emma’s not surprised when she comes back from class on October 1st to see Audrey and Noah decorating Emma and Audrey’s room with orange and purple lights and fake blood splatter gels.

“Whoa,” she says when she gets in, “You guys don’t waste any time. When did you even have time to do all this?”

“We hit up Big Lots as soon as we got out of class, but a lot of this is stuff I already had,” Noah says. “We’re going over to Riley and Brooke’s next to help them decorate.”

“He means do it for them. Brooke won’t be lifting a finger,” Audrey says. “His roommate won’t let him do anything to their room and he’s too chickenshit to argue, so he’s hugely overcompensating by making sure the entire tri-state area is in the Halloween spirit.”

“Okay, first of all— have you  _ seen _ the guy? He’s twice my size. And second of all— of course I am! It’s Halloween! It’s the best holiday of the year! This is Christmas for horror nerds like me!”

“Yeah, we know, Noah. No arguments here.” Audrey turns to Emma. “This is the fifth time today he’s given that speech.”

“It’s the  _ third _ time, and it’s more a spiel than a speech.”

Emma laughs. “Well, let me help.”

“We’re almost done here, but you can do the honors of hanging the last bat on the ceiling fan.”

Audrey hands Emma a plastic bat with a string of fishing line tied around it, which Emma ties around one of the blades on the fan. Then they head over to Brooke’s.

“Brooke’s not too thrilled about this,” Riley says as they walk in. “Try to keep it tasteful, for her sake.”

Brooke groans, rounding the corner coming from the kitchen. “They’re putting up Halloween decorations. Telling them to keep it tasteful is oxymoronic.”

“You don’t like Halloween?” Noah asks, extremely offended.

“Um, the main theme color for it is  _ orange _ . It’s tacky.”

“Halloween is not tacky!” Noah fires back defensively. “It’s the best holiday of the year!”

“Get ready for spiel number four,” Audrey mutters to Emma. Emma smiles.

“I think she just meant the color orange, Noah,” Emma says.

—

Noah slings his bag down at their usual patch of grass in the quad in a huff.

Brooke gives him a look. “Do you want us to ask?”

“We just got our midterm assignment for film class,” Audrey answers for him.

“What is it?” Riley asks, scooting closer to Noah.

“We have to partner up to make a short horror film,” Noah says.

“That doesn’t sound too bad,” Emma says.

“Sounds right up your alley, actually,” Riley says, crossing her legs and moving even closer to Noah, who just sort of awkwardly fidgets in response. Brooke wonders how long Riley’s going to torture this poor boy before one of them breaks. She wouldn’t have pegged Riley as the sadistic type.

“So you and Audrey are partnered together, right?” Emma asks.

“No, that’s the thing,” Noah says, “Audrey has decided to partner up with _ Rachel. _ ”

Brooke immediately picks up on his tone of voice. “Ooh-ooh,” she sing-songs, straightening up and staring Audrey down, “Who’s  _ Rachel _ ?”

Audrey looks sheepish. “She’s just a girl in our film class. No big deal.”

“Someone’s got a crush!” Brooke taunts.

“Shut up, okay?” Audrey shoves Brooke’s shoulder.

“And someone else is crushing back,” Noah adds.

“Foster, I swear to god!”

“So you think she likes you too?” Brooke asks, leaning forward.

“Maybe? I don’t know! Can we please talk about anything else?”

“Guys, leave her alone,” Zoe says, and as much as Brooke wants to ask more questions, she’s learned not to push when it comes to Audrey.

“Anyway,” Brooke says, clasping her hands together, begrudgingly moving on from the subject, “Halloween is in less than three weeks, and Riley and I are hosting a party at our place!”

“We are?” Riley asks.

“Yeah,” Brooke says. “It was your idea.”

“I brought it up last week just as a suggestion and I didn’t think you were listening. I figured you weren’t into the idea.”

“Yeah, I thought you didn’t like Halloween,” Noah says.

“I like booze and dressing cute and watching boys drool over me.” Brooke rolls her eyes. “And I’d rather do it on my own terms than at some skeezy frat party where they probably pee in the jungle juice at the tamest.”

“Wait, do they really pee in that stuff?” Noah asks, alarmed.

“Have you ever seen any of them drink it?”

“A Halloween party sounds like fun,” says Zoe.

“Thank you,” Brooke says, happy for some actual support. She figured with how these nerds went all-out for Halloween, her idea would be more well-received. “We’ll keep it small, but not too small. I wanna have fun, not spend a week doing clean-up. No one more than two degrees of separation away from the hostess,” she says, gesturing towards herself. “And Audrey—” She looks to Audrey cautiously, but can’t help smirking a little. “Be sure to invite Rachel.”

Audrey picks up an empty water bottle and chucks it at Brooke.

— 

Audrey’s been spending almost every day for the past two weeks working with Rachel after school. Rachel is smart and funny and blonde and pretty and way too cool to be as insecure as she is.

It’s not just meeting another gay girl, it’s meeting another gay girl who Audrey can relate to on so many other levels. Rachel’s obviously a total film geek like Audrey, and the two of them can talk for hours about stuff even Noah wouldn’t care about if she tried talking about it to him. And Rachel’s parents are also total religious freaks like Audrey’s, though Rachel seems to have a way different method of coping with that than Audrey does. Audrey’s been a stark atheist since she was twelve, and Rachel owns a pair of cross earrings that she wears only a little less than half the time Audrey sees her.

They haven’t even kissed yet, but just the simple fact that Rachel exists close to her gives Audrey some kind of insane hope. She thought she was going to be alone forever after she gave up the pipe dream that Emma might love her back.

Rachel actually kind of reminds Audrey of Emma in a way. Not so much the Emma of recent years, but Emma before… well, before a lot of stuff. Like Emma before she was hot, confident, popular Emma with a boyfriend on the football team. Though lately, Emma’s also been reminding Audrey of that Emma. The before one.

Audrey hasn’t prayed since she was eleven years old, but if she did, she’d be thanking God everyday for the simple pleasure of not fucking being in high school anymore.

“You should tell her,” Brooke says out of nowhere one Friday night while she and Audrey are drinking out on the back porch.

“Tell who what?”

Brooke rolls her eyes as if it’s supposed to be obvious, despite the lack of any context clues. “ _ Emma _ , obviously.” Audrey wants to ask  _ Tell Emma what? _ but Brooke knows she’s not that dumb. “I mean, you think things with this Rachel girl are gonna happen, right?”

“Not for sure.”

Another eye roll. “Audrey. Come on. I know you’re inexperienced, but you’re not _ Noah _ . You can tell whether or not these things are gonna happen. And you know things with Rachel are gonna happen.”

“Still not seeing how confessing my lifelong unrequited love for my straight best friend comes into play here.”

“Because if Emma is really as straight as you swear she is—”

“Don’t give me that look; she is! I know her better than you do!”

“ _ Anyway _ , if you’re sure the whole Emma thing is just a one-sided crush, then you should just suck it up and tell her before anything happens with Rachel, so that when they do, you’ll have some closure.”

It’s Audrey’s turn to roll her eyes. “Closure and catharsis are lies made up by the media. Just like the ideas that brand cereal is any better than the generic kind, or that bacon tastes good.”

“You’re  _ so _ wrong!” Brooke says. “Not about the bacon part, but about the rest of it. Are you just gonna never tell her and spend the rest of your life wondering what could’ve been?”

Audrey groans. “You are making this sound way more tragic than it actually is. I promise you, I’m not the first person in the world to have an unrequited leftover crush from high school, and I’ll move past it the way everyone else does: by getting over it and getting on with my life.”

“I’m not saying you need to make some dramatic, anguished confession in the rain or anything,” Brooke says. “All I’m suggesting is a simple, ‘Hey, by the way, I had a crush on you. Just wanted to let you know, and now you do, so I’m gonna go suck face with the cute girl from film class. Thanks for the talk.’”

She’s only been friends with her for about a month, but Audrey knows Brooke well enough by now to know she’s not gonna let this go easily. “Fine,” she says, “I’ll consider it.”

Brooke grins smugly. “That’s all I ask.”

—

“I just don’t get guys,” Riley bemoans, sitting on the edge of the tub watching Brooke dust Emma’s face with gold glitter.

“That’s because you don’t go for ones who are deserving of you,” Brooke says, to which Emma nudges her shin with her foot.

“Brooke, don’t be mean!” Riley says.

“I’m  _ kidding _ . Look, Noah’s great and all, but he’s socially hopeless. If you’re actually interested in him, you’re gonna have to make the first move.”

“Yeah,” Emma agrees. “You’re awesome and kickass. Don’t let his cluelessness stop you from going after what you want.”

Riley huffs. “I just don’t even know if he’s interested or not.”

Brooke rolls her eyes. “Riles, you’re way too hot for him to not be interested. Look, I was like you once,” Brooke says, putting down her makeup brush and allowing Emma to open her eyes. Brooke has adopted a power stance, staring down at Riley with her hands on her hips. “I mean, we’re all super hot girls who are probably used to men pursuing us instead of the other way around. But that doesn’t mean we have to accept that as the way things are. At some point, the hunted have got to learn to become the hunters.”

Emma looks in the mirror. “I think this is too much glitter.”

“No such thing,” Brooke snaps, then turns back to Riley. “I mean, look at you, you’re dressed up in some sci-fi cosplay get-up tonight in hopes of getting his attention. You’re better than that.”

“I actually  _ wanted  _ to wear this—”

“My point is, you’re way too good to be playing games. You want that skinny little nerd? Go and get him!”

Emma offers a round of golf claps at the end of Brooke’s speech. Brooke has yet to fail at impressing Emma so far. Hell, if there was someone she liked at the moment,  _ she  _ would feel motivated right now, and she wasn’t even the one Brooke was talking to.

“You’re right!” Riley says, standing up. “You’re actually completely right. I mean, what’s stopping me from making a move tonight?”

“Atta girl!” Brooke flashes her a gorgeous smile. “Now, let’s go downstairs and enjoy  _ our _ party.”

Emma thinks it’s a little ridiculous that they’re still up here, but Brooke had insisted on making a fashionably late appearance in her own house, and demanded that Riley and Emma arrive with her since Riley was her co-host and Brooke and Emma had matching costumes. Although she has to admit, she does feel kind of glamorous descending the stairs to an already lively party with two beautiful girls at her side. Even if they are carpeted stairs in a college student’s townhouse, and she’s sporting a pipe cleaner halo.

They’re immediately greeted by Zoe, who comes up to them holding four bright red jell-o shots. “Where have you guys been?” she asks, offering each of them a shot. She’s flushed and smiling brightly and already visibly drunk. Emma swallows her shot immediately, hoping to catch up.

“We had to arrive in style, of course,” Brooke says.

“Love it. Love the costumes. Angel and devil,” she says, gesturing to Emma and Brooke, “very cute. And Riley, you are…?”

“River Tam from  _ Firefly _ .”

“Oh my god, I love it!” Zoe clasps her hands together. She hugs Riley. “You look beautiful!”

Riley blushes. “Thanks. 

“Where’d the jell-o shots come from?” Brooke asks.

“That’s all me,” Audrey says, appearing behind Zoe along with Noah. Emma’s not sure what Audrey’s supposed to be, only that she has a lot of fake blood dripping down her mouth. “I handled food and drink, Noah handled any additional decorating and music.”

Emma would be impressed by Brooke’s ability to charm two people who didn’t even live with her into planning her entire party, but she figures Audrey and Noah hadn’t needed much convincing. They both loved Halloween, and Audrey seemed to love booze almost as much as Brooke.

Brooke looks unimpressed with Noah. “If I knew when you were gonna TP my house, I never would’ve put you in charge.”

“The black and white streamers? They’re spooky.”

“It looks like _ toilet paper,  _ Noah. And what are you playing?”

“It’s a playlist of various horror movie soundtracks. I wanted to fit the theme.”

“I told you she wouldn’t like it,” Audrey says smugly.

“The  _ theme _ is a party people want to actually come to.”

“I’ll change the music,” Audrey says.

“Thank you.” Brooke makes an attempt to smile. “Thanks for doing this anyway, Noah. It was a good effort.”

“Thanks.”

“Cute costume! What are you supposed to be?” Brooke asks.

Noah looks downright insulted. “Um, I’m the Babadook. Duh.”

Zoe giggles. “ _ Yes _ , gay icon!” She cheers, throwing her arms around a very confused Noah.

Brooke grabs Emma’s wrist. “C’mon, let’s go get some drinks that aren’t available to the general  public.” She leads Emma to the kitchen where she unlocks the top cabinet and grabs a bottle of wine.

“Hey pretty lady,” Jake says, coming up from behind Brooke when they’re about a third through the bottle— although to be fair, Brooke’s been drinking most of it.

Brooke rolls her eyes. “Jake. Glad you came.”

“Glad you invited me. Emma, you mind if I get a dance with the hostess?”

“Riley’s not here. I think she’s in the living room,” Brooke says.

“C’mon, you know I meant you!”

Brooke laughs. “I’m not that drunk.”

“One dance. All I ask.”

“If I say yes, will you leave me alone for the rest of the night.”

“Whatever you say, baby.”

Brooke groans. “Also, never call me baby again.” She hands the bottle of wine to Emma. “I’ll be back.”

Emma takes a small sip of wine. When the song ends, and then the next song ends, and Brooke doesn’t come back, Emma starts wandering around. She always sort of feels exposed at parties alone. At parties in high school she always had either Nina or Will to latch onto, sometimes even Audrey the few times she ever went to parties. Now she has Brooke, and Audrey still, and a whole new group of other people, and she can’t seem to find any of them. Brooke is presumably still with Jake, or has found some other boy to fool around with, and Emma can’t seem to find Riley. She finds Zoe and Noah on the couch, both heavily drunk, having a heated argument Emma thinks she should break up until she realizes they’re talking about the Babadook, and decides to leave it.

“Hey, Em,” a voice comes from behind her.

Emma turns around and yelps when she sees Audrey. “Oh my god! You scared me!” she laughs.

Audrey smiles. “Thank you.”

“You aren’t still DJing?”

“Nah, passed that job over to Jake. Got sick of it pretty quick.”

“Jake’s not still with Brooke?”

Audrey pulls a face. “No, he’s with her. I couldn’t stand to watch them another second.”

Emma rolls her eyes. “Oh god.”

“I know.”

“Speaking of people and couples,” Emma says, “is that girl you like here?”

“Rachel?” Audrey asks. “I invited her and she said she’d think about it, but I haven’t seen her. She’s probably not coming.”

“Aw, c’mon, don’t talk like that! She’s probably just taking her sweet time getting ready to look nice for you.”

Audrey blushes and looks down. “No, I don’t think it’s that. She’s not like that, she’s just… not really a party kind of girl.”

“Well she knows you’re gonna be at  _ this _ party, right?”

“Yeah.”

“And she likes you, right?”

“Yeah, I guess, I don’t really—”

“Then I’m sure she’ll come!” Emma says. “Auds, c’mon, you’re a total catch. She’d be stupid  _ not _ to come.”

Audrey’s still looking down, smile growing wider. “Yeah. Maybe.” She looks up. “Emma, actually can we talk about something?”

Emma’s face turns serious. “Yeah, of course. What do you wanna talk about?”

“It’s like— not a big deal, it’s just something I need to get off my chest, it’s stupid—”

“Audrey,” Emma interrupts, “you can tell me anything.”

“Okay,” Audrey says, “can we just maybe go somewhere more private?”

“Yeah. Of course.”

They round the corner and start going up the stairs when Audrey looks back. “Wait, that’s her.”

“Who?” Emma asks.

“Rachel. She just walked in. Look, Em, I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

Audrey doesn’t wait for an answer before bolting down the stairs. “Okay,” Emma says when Audrey’s already well out of earshot.

She starts to get a weird feeling in her stomach, and not in an ate-a-bad-burrito way. She takes a large swig of wine, and hopes the feeling goes away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come yell at me about this fic on [tumblr](http://emreys.tumblr.com/).


	4. November

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There’s a girl in their room. A girl who is quite noticeably not Audrey.  
> More significantly, there’s a girl who is not Audrey asleep in Audrey’s bed, her blonde hair splayed out across the pillow.  
> “Um…”  
> The girl stirs, rolling over. She’s wearing clothes, thank god; she’s wearing Audrey’s band shirt from a concert she and Emma went to their junior year of high school. She sits up, blinking as her eyes adjust to the light. “Hey,” she says brightly, rubbing her eyes. “You’re Emma, right?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't say how sorry I am for the lateness of this chapter! Between finals, my laptop breaking, and recently getting out of a very bad living situation, it was all pretty much a perfect storm of bullshit preventing me from writing, hence the delay. I have no plans to let this become a habit though, especially since I've recently gotten a ton of my inspiration back.
> 
> As always, thank you to my betas, [Amanda](http://archiveofourown.org/users/acityofsleeplesspeople/pseuds/acityofsleeplesspeople), and a very special thank you to [Bri](http://archiveofourown.org/users/explosionshark/pseuds/explosionshark) for letting me yell at her about these two gay hot messes at all hours of the night!

Emma drives home from Brooke’s in the morning alone only slightly hungover, which she considers a win. She stops at McDonald’s to get breakfast— a McGriddle for her, hotcakes for Audrey. When she gets back to their dorm room, she sets the McDonald’s bag on her desk and freezes.

There’s a girl in their room. A girl who is quite noticeably not Audrey.

More significantly, there’s a girl who is not Audrey asleep in Audrey’s  _ bed _ , her blonde hair splayed out across the pillow.

“Um…”

The girl stirs, rolling over. She’s wearing clothes, thank god; she’s wearing Audrey’s band shirt from a concert she and Emma went to their junior year of high school. She sits up, blinking as her eyes adjust to the light. “Hey,” she says brightly, rubbing her eyes. “You’re Emma, right?”

“Yeah. And you must be—”

“Rachel. Has Audrey…?”

“Yeah, she’s mentioned you.” Emma sits down on her desk chair. “So, um… did you have a good time at the party last night?”

“Yeah, yeah. It was… nice.”

“Yeah. It was fun.”

“Yeah.”

“Mhm.” Emma sits there for a minute. She picks up her phone and texts Brooke. She opens her twitter and refreshes her feed a couple times. She checks out of the corner of her eye to see if Rachel’s still looking at her. She isn’t.

Cool.

Rachel’s pretty in a plain sort of way. She’s got the remnants of last night’s eyeliner forming dark circles under her eyes, and a stain of either red lipstick or fake blood smudged from her mouth all the way across her left cheek. She doesn’t seem like the kind of person who wears makeup very often. Emma can kind of see it, how she makes sense for Audrey. Emma had never really pictured what Audrey’s first girlfriend would be like, but she guesses if she had, Rachel wouldn’t be too far off from that image.

“So, um, where’s Audrey?” Emma asks.

Rachel looks up. “I don’t know. I just woke up. I could text her for you, but I’m not sure where my phone is.”

“It’s fine, I’ll text her.” Emma answers a text from Brooke, then shoots one off to Audrey. She takes a moment to really look around the room. There’s a collared shirt in a heap at the foot of Audrey’s bed and a pair a colored jeans that look like they came from Old Navy. Definitely not Audrey’s. There are also remnants of Audrey’s Halloween costume lying in the middle of the floor. Audrey’s phone vibrates on the floor from underneath a piece of her costume.

“So she must not have gone far then,” Rachel says.

“Yeah. Hey, what did you wear at the party last night?” Emma asks, trying to remember if she saw Rachel at all.

“Oh, I wasn’t sure if it was going to be a costume thing or not, so I just came dressed nice. With a witch hat. Just to be safe.”

“Oh. Cool.”

“You were a really pretty angel last night.” Rachel blushes. “Sorry, I didn’t mean that to be weird or anything. I just meant— you looked nice in your costume, is all.”

Okay, Emma can see why Audrey likes this girl. “Thanks. And you know, you don’t have to apologize. It’s not weird.”

Audrey walks through the door just then, drying her hair off with a towel. She sees Emma. “Oh. Hey. Did you two already…?”

“We met,” Rachel says, smiling sweetly.

“Oh, cool. Rach, the showers are mostly empty if you wanted to go next. Emma, are you…?”

“I’m not sticking around. I’m going to Brooke’s to help clean up, I just wanted to drop off breakfast first.” She motions to the McDonald’s bag.

“Oh. Cool. Thanks.”

“I’ll go.”

“Yeah. Bye.”

Emma’s phone starts ringing when she’s about halfway over to Brooke’s. She checks it when she’s at a stoplight. She sees it’s Brooke, and hits ignore, texting back, “driving. talk to you when i get there.”

When she gets to Brooke’s, the door practically swings off its hinges at the first knock. Brooke grabs her wrist and pulls her inside. “Tell me  _ everything _ . Did they have sex?”

“I don’t know! I already texted you everything I know.”

“That can’t be all you know.” Brooke whips out her phone and reads from it. “‘Rachel from Audrey’s film class is in her bed, wide-eyed emoji.’ I need details, Duval!”

“Wait, what?” Noah asks, rounding the corner from the kitchen. “Audrey and Rachel had sex?”

“I'm telling you, I don't know!”

“Well, only one way to find out,” Brooke says, looking down at her phone.

“What are you doing?” Emma asks, but her question is answered once she can hear the ringing after Brooke puts her phone on speaker.

“What do you want?” Audrey answers.

“Did you have sex with her?” Brooke asks immediately.

“Brooke, what the hell?”

“Sorry,” Emma says. “I tried to reign her in.”

“Emma, what the hell did you tell her?”

“She didn't tell me anything, that's why I'm calling you! So did you or didn't you?”

“I— no! We just went back to my room to talk—”

“That is bullshit, please tell me you didn't ‘just talk!’”

“Let me finish! Fuck! We made out some, and we slept together. I mean— no, we didn't  _ sleep together _ , we just slept together, you know?”

“Is she there now?” Noah asks.

“What the fuck? Noah’s there too?”

“Yeah,” Brooke says.

“Fuck you for putting me on speaker. And no, I wouldn't be talking to you morons if she was here. She's in the shower.”

“Are you coming over to help clean up?” Emma asks.

“Bring Rachel!” Brooke adds.

“Yeah, I'm coming over later, and fuck no I'm not bringing her. You guys are the worst human beings in the world. Bye.”

Audrey hangs up before any of them have a chance to say anything.

“Well, that went well,” Noah says.

Zoe and Riley come down the stairs just then. They hug at the bottom of the stairs, and when they turn around, they both look like they’ve been crying. Emma doesn’t ask why. She doesn’t remember everything from last night, but she has the feeling it’s better not to approach the issue in front of present company.

“Hey guys,” Noah says brightly, oblivious to the change in atmosphere. “Where’d you disappear to?”

Riley doesn’t answer. “Zo, I’m gonna go take down the decorations in the backyard. Wanna come help?” Zoe nods, and follows her out back.

Noah turns to Emma and Brooke. “What was that about?”

Brooke makes a dramatic show of rolling her eyes, complete with a groan, and disappears into the kitchen. Emma follows her.

They're both in the kitchen putting plastic cups into garbage bags when Audrey gets there.

“Hey guys,” she calls as the door opens. “Rachel’s here!” she says in a too-perky don’t-make-this-weird-or-I’ll-kill-you kind of voice.

“Hey!” Brooke rounds the corner in an instant. “Rachel! So nice to finally meet you!” Audrey’s glaring daggers at Brooke, which is probably why she leaves it at that.

“She insisted on coming to help. Plus I wanted you guys to meet her,” Audrey says. Emma tries to keep a poker face and she can see Brooke smirk. “Rachel, this is Brooke. Brooke, Rachel. And you know Noah from class—”

“Yeah, you were the drunk kid yelling about how the Babadook wasn’t gay last night.”

Audrey smirks and nudges Rachel with her shoulder. Rachel giggles. It’s cute. They’re cute.

“...and of course, you already met Emma,” Audrey says, and Emma holds out her hand.

“It’s great to meet you officially,” Rachel says, shaking Emma’s hand. “Audrey talks about you a  _ lot. _ ”

“Oh, yeah,” Emma laughs nervously, “I mean, we’ve been best friends since we were little so…” Emma trails off. It’s weird, but Emma feels uncomfortably defensive and judged, like everyone can’t stop looking at her. And everyone is looking at her, because she’s talking, but there’s this uneasiness in her chest and she wants them all to look away. She feels like an insecure high school freshman again. She realizes that she’s been shaking Rachel’s hand for maybe a little longer than she should be, so she drops it. “Um, Audrey’s said really nice things about you too.”

Rachel smiles and flushes pink. 

“So,” Audrey says, in an obvious attempt to get the focus off her and Rachel, “what do you need us to do?”

“Well, you could start by helping me figure out why Zoe and Riley aren't talking to me.”

“I kind of meant in terms of cleaning up, Noah.”

Brooke rolls her eyes again. “He made out with Zoe last night.”

Emma looks to him. “Wait, seriously?”

Audrey groans. “Idiot.”

“Okay, see, I figured it had something to do with that, but I don’t know why they’d be mad about that. I know I’m not the best with social cues, but Zoe was definitely into it, I mean, she did kind of kiss me first, and—”

“Noah!” Audrey snaps, interrupting his rambling. “Riley likes you!”

Noah looks at Audrey like she’s crazy. “Wait, what?”

Audrey shakes her head and grabs Rachel’s hand. “We’re going outside. I’ll let you guys explain it to him.”

Emma watches them walk out, a sort of nervous feeling settling in her stomach. She can’t quite seem to make sense of it. She obviously doesn’t have anything against Audrey having a— girlfriend? Is that what they were? They probably haven’t even had that talk themselves, but they were already acting like girlfriends. Obviously, Emma doesn’t have a problem with it, it’s just weird seeing Audrey with anyone. She feels guilty admitting it to herself, but she had never really pictured Audrey ending up with someone. Not that she necessarily thought Audrey would end up alone, she just never really imagined her… dating

Brooke looks at Emma with a look she can't quite decipher. “She's pretty, right?”

Emma nods. “Yeah. She’s cute.”

“I knew Audrey liked her, but I had no idea she was so whipped already. I figured it would take at least a month of pleading on both ends before Audrey let us meet her.” Brooke looks at Emma. “Are you okay?”

Emma looks up, surprised. “Yeah. Why?”

“Just checking.”

“Hey, does anyone want to explain to me what’s going on?” asks Noah.

Brooke looks at Emma. “You’re on your own,” she says, heading towards the back door to join the rest of the girls outside.

-

“So wait, I still don't get it.”

“It's really not that complicated, Noah,” Emma sighs as they sit down at their usual place on the quad.

“Okay, then explain it again, because I'm still not seeing how this is my fault. And I'd like to know, so I can at least apologize or something.”

Audrey shrugs and puts her arm around Rachel as she sits down. “Why are you looking at me like I claim to know how straight girls’ minds work?”

“Isn't Zoe bi…?”

“That's not the point,” Emma says. “It's  _ not _ your fault. They're not trying to punish you, and you have nothing to apologize for.”

“Think of it this way, Noah,” Rachel says, very patiently. “You and Audrey are best friends, right? What if you both liked the same girl?”

“Why would that matter? Audrey’s dating you.”

Emma doesn't miss the way Audrey ducks her head down, trying to conceal a smile. God, they're sickeningly cute.

“I meant hypothetically,” Rachel says, again, very patiently, probably more patiently than even Emma could manage. Patience is a probably good quality for someone dating Audrey to have. “Noah, they're friends. And, no offense, but I'm guessing their friendship is more important to them than whatever feelings either of them may have for you. Like Emma said, they're not trying to punish you.”

“Then why aren't they talking to me?”

“Give them a few days to cool down,” Emma says. “They’ll come around.”

“I totally blew my chance with Riley, didn’t I?” Noah asks. He’s met with no answer and whines. “I can’t believe this!”

“Me neither,” Audrey says. “I was shocked to find out one girl liked you, but two at the same time—”

“Audrey!” Rachel nudges Audrey’s knee with her knee, and Audrey laughs. “You’re so mean!”

“Yeah, she’s pretty much terrible,” Noah says. “That’s her whole thing.”

“Watch it, Foster.”

“ _ I _ don’t think you’re terrible,” Rachel says, and Audrey kisses her on the cheek.

“Guys,” Emma interrupts, feeling uncomfortable for reasons she can’t quite place. “We should probably change the subject before Brooke, Zoe, and Riley get here.” She’s actually been uncomfortable since they started this conversation— talking about her friends behind their backs was bad enough, but doing it in front of Rachel, who barely knew them, didn’t help matters.

-

Thanksgiving is Audrey’s least favorite holiday. 

She and Emma’s family have been doing Thanksgivings together since Emma and Audrey were nine years old. Emma’s dad had just left and Maggie was estranged from the rest of her family, so it had been Audrey’s mom’s idea to invite the Duvals over. Their families weren’t even that close back then. Actually, they weren’t even very close now, hadn’t been since Audrey’s mom got sick. Audrey’s pretty sure the only reason they still do these dinners together, other than the fact that Emma’s mom is a good cook, is because if her dad didn’t invite the Duvals, it would just be the two of them alone together. Her mom’s relatives had stopped coming after her mom got sick, her dad’s parents were both dead, and her aunts and uncles and annoying cousins gradually stopped coming as each horrible, torturous dinner got even more depressing each year. Having Emma and Maggie there was the only thing keeping Audrey and her dad from being forced to have a real face-to-face, one-on-one conversation with each other for the first time in years. And Audrey was pretty sure that terrified her dad even more than it terrified her.

Honestly, Audrey considers it a successful Thanksgiving if she can get through dinner without stabbing or cursing someone out. She has yet to resort to stabbing, but she’d be lying if she said she never had the impulse.

Audrey almost manages to make it through dinner with a minimum of cursing and/or stabbing impulses until Maggie asks, “So, Emma, have you met any cute guys yet at college?”

Emma rolls her eyes. “No, mom. I haven’t really been focusing on that.”

“What happened to that boy you were dating?” Audrey’s dad asks, as if to demonstrate that he really doesn’t talk to the Duvals more than five or six times a year. “Will, was it?”

“ _ Dad, _ ” Audrey hisses under her breath. If her dad hears her, he ignores her.

“Will and I broke up, Mr. Jensen,” Emma says, far too politely.

“Really? He seemed like a nice boy.”

“Yeah, well, he wasn’t!” Audrey snaps. Emma gives her a look across the table that clearly means  _ stop talking _ .

Her dad looks in her direction. “I’m just making conversation, Audrey.” He doesn’t look her in the eye. “What about you?”

Audrey raises an eyebrow. “What  _ about  _ me?”

“I meant to ask are you seeing anyone?”

Audrey nearly chokes on her green beans.

“You know, the first semester of college has actually been really tough,” Emma says, stepping in quickly like the angel she is. “Both of us have been focused on school more than anything else. We haven’t had much time for a social life.”

Probably even Maggie knows that’s a flat out lie, but Audrey’s dad just nods and says, “Understandable.”

Audrey takes a long drink of water and then gets up. “May I be excused?” she asks quickly and doesn’t wait for a response before taking her plate to the sink and then bolting up the stairs.

Emma follows soon after. “You really need to work on your poker face,” she says when she gets up to Audrey’s room.

Audrey rolls her eyes. “Please. My dad’s been in denial for years. As long as I don’t walk in the house with a flashing neon sign that says ‘I’m gay,’ I think I’ll be fine.”

Emma gives her a sad smile. “Yeah,” she says, sitting down next to Audrey on the bed.

“And hey, I only felt the urge to flip the table maybe, like, three times? All in all, we’ve had worse Thanksgivings.”

“Definitely better than the one where you called your Aunt Charlotte an alcoholic bitch.”

“I used slightly more colorful and descriptive language than that, but you’re right.”

Emma laughs. “Hey, seriously, though,” she says, “I’m really glad you’re with Rachel.”

That takes Audrey off-guard. She’s not totally sure where that came from. “Really?”

“Yeah,” Emma says. “She’s sweet, y’know, and it seems like she makes you happy.” Emma tucks her hair behind her ear. “I’m just glad you… y’know, have someone.”

Something’s up, Audrey knows it, and she considers asking Emma what’s really going on, but instead she just nods and says, “Yeah. Me too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Send me some love or harass me with questions about this fic on [tumblr](http://emreys.tumblr.com/).

**Author's Note:**

> Please come bother me about this fic and just these losers in general on [tumblr](http://emreys.tumblr.com/)!


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